MacBook Pro - SSD Boot Time and Performance

Hey guys, I don't know all that much about Solid State Drives, (will reference as SSD) but I've heard that read speeds are far faster than HDDs. (although write speeds are not that great?)

I was wondering, if I do decided to spend the extra AUD$240 to get a 128GB SSD in my new MacBook Pro im buying soon, will things like boot time and reading from the drive be faster than say if I used a 500GB HDD @ 7200rpm?
Also, what is the expected life for a 128GB SSD for someone who listens to a fair amount of music daily, watches a decent amount of videos, and does some light photo editing (Photoshop)?

My opinion is that for your uses, a SSD is not worth the extra money (unless you have a row of money trees out back). Music won't play faster, video won't play faster, and light photoshop is not going to tax a 7200rpm HDD. Sure you might get faster OS startup and apps will open a tiny bit faster, but is going from a 20 second boot time to 15 seconds worth the cash? OSX already starts up really, really fast.